Can Dwight and Bev really mask this team's horrid defense?

Lol wut?

 

If you think Bev would have made a difference with all the forwards and shooting guards going off on us.....the only difference is they would have gotten a couple more of their points from the line. Dwight on the other hand would have made a noticeable difference.

 

I agree they need to get there stuff together quick, because if we get past Portland MANU, LENOARD, GREEN are going to bring everything they got, pop will have them moving all game without the ball

 

How do you lose to a team with all its best players out? I mean, this team is essentially the same team that went to the playoffs last year. No excuse for them to lose this game.

 

Lets get rid of sampson n mchale. They both need to go.

 

I'm asking myself similar questions. The timing just seems awfully coincidental in terms of our defensive rotations, line ups, bad rotations, etc.

There are tons of ways to slow down a hot shooter, and nearly every one of those involves coaching decisions in terms of assignments, defensive strategies and line up changes.

There is no way that Anyone should be putting up 51 unless their name is Lebron, Durant, Love, Harden, etc with a halfway competent defensive scheme. ESPECIALLY in the paint. Hot 3 point shooting is one thing, but Brewer got nearly ALL his points in the paint, in transition or at the line.

 

This is like asking if lin can mask our lack of turnovers.

 

One glimmer of hope is that the Rockets did do a pretty good job defensively against Durant last Friday. They didn't shut him down, but they definitely made it difficult for him score his usual 30+ points. If they're capable of that when they're missing Bev, Dwight, and Sampson and are reeling from 3 straight losses, I don't see why they can't play equally solid defense against the Blazers in Round 1.

 

Probably because there's multiple facets to a successful defense.

1) General defensive schemes. Those we have, and those won't be severely impacted by Sampson's departure.
2) Players on the roster. The roster we have is what it is. Having Sampson or not won't change whether Dwight or Beverley can play.

Now for the stuff that will suffer the most from Sampson's absence.

3) Pregame preparation. Someone has to break down the opponents for each game, talk about coverage, and adjust the existing schemes as well as run practice drills to prepare for those match ups. If that job was Sampson's, we lose a significant part of the brain trust.

4) In game defensive adjustments. Someone has to break down film for half time, or spot minor lapses in defensive coverage that can quickly spiral out of control. Someone has to be the disciplinarian to call out specific players in terms of defensive effort or coach them in terms of adjusting to their assignments. And Someone has to be the one who can see the best and worst line up mismatches and call for line up changes during the game.

Part of our defensive fundamentals is already in place with or without Sampson. As for the rest, I'm not so sure.

 

Beverley is an elite defender individually and is still getting better defensively.

He has his limitations; he cannot isolate and score, he cannot drive to the bucket consistently and score, he is not the most creative passer. However he does defend the point guard position just about as well as anyone in the NBA, he hits 3's and doesn't turn the ball over. He is a big part of what the Rockets are doing right now. The drop off from Beverley to Lin and Canaan is huge at this point.

 

Swarming or packing the paint was part of the Rockets game plan in past seasons because of metrics. The Rockets lacked premier post defenders and wanted to avoid shots close to the baskets. However, this season Sampson and McHale and Morey all wanted to prevent corner 3's and felt with Howard and Asik they would need no help inside. Unfortunately the perimeter players have been slow to adjust, especially Harden.

 

The decision for mchale to start beverley in the beginning of the season makes too much sense now. The Rockets offense is so potent that having pat and d12 balances things out.

 

Yeah... You didn't watch the game did you?

 

Valid points. I'd argue that although he is not a creative passer he is an extremely safe passer which is probably more important for his role (blase offense--great defense). His turnover differential is impressive.

I'm anticipating Beverley returning tonight. Our entire team is more aggressive defensively when he is in there. It's hard to show no heart when you see Beverley full-court pressing the PG on every play.

 

I wish idiots stop making the points that because Beverley didn't shut down Westbrook last year he's not a elite defender.

Do you even watch basketball. Shane Battier and Artest were considered and great defender and there were times where Kobe, or Brandon Roy dropped 40+ on him. What about Bruce Bowen, I remember during his career he was straight up lit up by Kobe, Tmac, Vince Carter.

The super stars in the NBA will get their points, there's nothing you can do about it, they are that good on offense. What makes a great defender is being disciplined on defense rotations, be really pesky and high pressure, and force them into low percentage shots. Whether or not they make those shots is not up to you, but your job is done if you've done those things

Beverley does a great job with pressure defence that frustrates most PG's he defend. If he can be smart on rotations like Battier, and foul less he's a elite defender.

 

Not entirely true.

While I agree Howard cleans up inside and there is no way in hell he lets Brewer get 16 FG's inside, Beverley does make a difference because the Rockets and the current NBA relies on switches so often.

 

I know that there is no way we can blame defense on the coaches, because the players out there sometimes just have to put some man pants on and fight for every inch on the court. But having watched this team throughout the year , i just feel like there are so many miscues that they are not even being told what to do.

We are lost on Defense and Howard+Beverley wont change that, sure they will help but the base of this defense is just not structured correctly.

Lin goes under screens when 3 point shooters are handling, Parsons goes for help defense steals when asik is protecting leaving a 3pt shooter open...etc

There is absolutely zero discipline on Defense, and no one is being held accountable because it happens every freakin game...Its not about Pride like lin and his clueless mind suggests, if you don't have pride on D get out of the gym because you dont even belong here.
Its about Timing, Discipline and strategy....and i just dont see how this will be fixed in the playoffs, when half-court D is crucial...Maybe iam wrong and Dwight will have a bigger difference, but Asik has been beasting and we still suck on D

 

Fixed.

And for those going off their memories, here's his actual scores... there's a LOT of blame to go around.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/vC1srGqOrK4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Which begs the question... what were the coaches doing exactly?